Bath mitt



May 6, 1952 v. PlERcE BATH MITT Filed Nov? 25, 1946 INVENTOR.

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Patented May 6, 1952 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE BATH MITT Vera Pierce, Dearborn, Mich.

Application November 25, 1946, Serial No. 712,111

Claims. l

The present invention relates to a bath mitt and more particularly to a bath mitt adapted to include a pocket for the reception of a bar or small pieces of soap.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a oath mitt which will insure speedy, convenient and efficient means for soaping the body and rinsing the soap from the body by the use of the same article.

Another object o1` the present invention is to provide a handy and convenient container for soap, thus insuring its availability at all times and to prevent its slipping out of the hand during use, making it difficult to locate when needed and providing a dangerous hazard on which the bather is apt to slip or fall in the tub or shower.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a receptacle for soap which will insure no waste ci the soap and in which small pieces of soap can eifectively be utilized.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a handy, useful and attractive Soap container and body cloth incorporated in one and the same object.

A further object of the .present invention is to provide abath mitt so constructed and arranged as to provide intertting recesses for the thumb and little nger whereby gripping of an article is facilitated.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a bath mitt having identical recesses at opposite sides of the main hand opening into which a thumb or little linger may nt, thus providing for reversibility o f the mitt.

A further object of the present invention is to provvide improved and simplified means avoiding the necessity of elastic and other additional material for insuring closure of the soap containing pocket.

Other objects and features of the invention will become apparent as the description proceeds, especially when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Figure 1 is a front elevation of the inside of the back of the mitt;

Figure 2 is a front elevation of the pocket forming fabric ofthe mitt; l

Figure 3 is a front elevation of the closure strip for the soap pocket; Y

Figure 4 is a front elevation of the inside of the front of the mitt;

Figure 5 is a front elevation of the pocket forming fabric and the pocket closure sewed together;

Figure y6 is a front elevation of the pocket forming fabric with the closure strip attached thereto assembled together with and sewed to the inside of the front of the mitt;

Figure 7 is a front elevation of the completed mitt formed by sewing the assembly illustrated in Figure 6 to the back piece illustrated in Figure l;

Figure 8 is a section on the line 3-8 of Figure '7;

Figure 9 is a section on the line S-Q of Figure 7; and

Figure l0 is a sectional view similar to Figure 9 with the pocket opened out.

The bath mitt according to the present invention is preferably formed of a relatively thick absorbent fabric such for example as terry cloth. It is assembled together of two pieces, a front and a bach piece of substantially similar outline sewn along the edges so as to leave a handopening at one side. A soap containing pocket is provided at the inside of the mitt by sewing a piece of fabric such for example as muslin about the sides to leave an opening to the pocket adjacent to the hand open-ing into the interior of the mitt.

In the drawing, the completed mitt is illusytrated as having a substantially pentagonal shape, but it will be appreciated that this is a matter of choice and ir" desired its shape may be entirely diiierent, as for example substantially circular in shape.

Referring now to Figure l, there is illustrated the back piece lil, which is out tothe desired shape and preferably has a short extension ll folded over to the inside and sewed as indicated by the line of stitching l2.

The front piece of the mitt is illustrated in Figure l at 2B and is substantially similar in outline although its over-all length is somewhat shorter than that of the rear piece lil. The front piece 2i! also has a, short extension l2l folded over to provide a hem which is secured along the inner surface of the front piece of the mitt by the line of Sewing 22. In order to provide fullness in a soap pocket later to be described, a longitudinal fold or pleat indicated generally at 23 is provided in the mitt, this pleat being held in place by a line of sewing 25,4 which terminates short of the cen-ter of the mitt by a transverse line of sewing 25 and another line of sewing 26 also terminating short of the central portion of the mitt at a transverse line of sewing 2l. Between the lines of sewing 25 and 2l the pleat 23 is unsewed and may be opened out to provide fullness in the soap containing pocket.

1n Figure 2 the material for forming the soap containing pocket in conjunction with the front 'assembly of the completed mitt is illustrated. In

this figure the pocket forming piece 30 has been secured to the closure strip or flap 40 by the double lines of sewing indicated at 4l along the edge of said piece 3D which is a free edge in the final assembly, the other edges being sewed to the outer fabric piece 20.

In Figure 6 the next succeeding step of the assembly of the mitt is illustrated. In this figure the assembly illustrated in Figure comprising the pocket forming piece 30 and the strip 4B is placed in overlying relationship to the inner surface of the front piece 2D, as illustrated, with the strip 40 extending generally beyond the lower edge 50 of the front 4piece 20. united by a line of sewing 5I which extends from one lower corner of the piece 3B along one side to the upper end, thence across the upper end and down the other side to the end at which the line of sewing was initiated. The lower end of the fabric is left unsewed to afford access to the interior of the pocket 52 thus formed.

The final step in the assembly of the mitt comprises inverting the assembly as illustrated in Figure 6 onto the back piece of the mitt as shown in Figure 1. At this time the strip or flap 45 extends beyond the lower end 53 of the back piece I0. It is at this time folded forwardly over the front face of the front piece 2i! and the line of sewing 55 is made beginning at one corner of the assembled mitt and extending completely therearound to the opposite corner, leaving the hand opening between the front portion and the rear portion ID. This line of sewing stitches down the ends of strip 40, as indicated at 55a, and the strip thus constitutes a flap which is thus held in a closing relationship over the entrance to the soap containing pocket formed between the front piece 20 and the fabric 30. Preferably, at the time the seam 55 is formed the edges of the parts Aare turned in to provide a smooth, attractive appearance.

In order to complete the mitt, a line of sewing indicated at 56 is provided, which is begun adjacent -the hand opening into the mitt and extends upwardly so as to dene thumb or nger receiving recesses 51 and 58 and a main hand receiving recess 59. It will be appreciated that in use the ,hand is inserted into the hand opening left between the front and rear pieces, and iffdesired the three middle fingers may be positioned in the recess 59 while the little finger and thumb may be positioned in the recesses 5'1 and 58, respectively. This permits the hand to be flexed or closed so as to afford a grip on a piece of soap such as 60 positioned within the pocket 52. It will be appreciated that if no separate recess were provided for both the thumb and little finger the gripping operation would be much more diiicult, since there would be a tendency for either the thumb or little finger to slip over the interior surface of the mitt. By providing separate spaced apart recesses for the thumb and litle finger, it is possible to obtain a positive grip and positive flexing of the mitt about the The parts are soap. The construction just described also permits reversal of the mitt so that the soap is located at the back of the hand, at which time the mitt is particularly useful for a rinsing operation to remove the soap from the body. Furthermore, the provision of the recesses 5'1 and 58 permits the mitt itself to be gripped so that it does not slip off the hand when it becomes wet and heavy and slippery from soap. This obviates the necessity of providing uncomfortable and short-lived elastic for retaining the mitt on the hand.

While the preceding description has described the structure primarily with reference to the method of production, it will be appreciated that this has been done merely to afford a fuller understanding of the completed construction. As a matter of fact, the steps may be in a different order, and in fact it may be desirable to perform the sewing operations with the parts reversed, inverted or inside out to facilitate the manufacture. However, the finished product is such as would .be produced by the practice of the steps previously outlined.

Referring now to Figure 8, which illustrates a longitudinal section of the mitt, it will be observed that the pocket 52 between the front piece 25 and the fabric piece 50 is adapted to receive a piece of soap 6G.

It will be observed that the strip 40, which is secured at opposite ends to the body of the mitt, forms a closure for the opening 62 into the pocket 52 which will positively prevent accidental withdrawal of the soap from the pocket. In practice, it is found that the closure strip 40 lies quite tightly against the adjacent surface of the mitt.

At the same time, it is of course a simple matter to insert a bar or smaller pieces of soap into the opening 52 due to the flexibility of the parts.

In Figure 9 the mitt is illustrated with the pocket 52 empty, at which time the pleat 23, due to the partial seams 24, 25, 26 and 21, tends to remain fiat.

In Figure 10 there is illustrated a piece of soap '60 received within the pocket, at which time the fullness provided by the unsewed portion of the pleat 23 is expanded to form the enlarged pocket 52.

Preferably a looped knot 65 is sewed to the completed mitt as illustrated in Figure 7 which serves as a decoration thereto and also provides the loop 66, by means of which the mitt may be suspended from a suitable hook.

While in Figure 6 I have illustrated the pocket forming fabric 3l] as sewed to the front piece 20 along three sides, it is possible to attach the pocket forming fabric 30 to the front piece 20 by a single seam extending transversely across the parts adjacent the top of the fabric 30. This single straight line of sewing will serve to retainv the parts in properly assembled position and during the nal assembly operation which results in the construction illustrated in Figure 7 the line of sewing 56 will catch a substantial portion of the sides of the fabric 3B, thus avoiding the necessity of providing the two parallel lines of sewing 5l which extend upwardly from the bottom of the mitt as seen in Figure 6.

The above illustrated and described construction of the bath mitt .provide a structure equivalent to the. provision of webs between the thumb and little finger recesses and the central portion, so that the mitt may be employed as a scoop in Y rinsing soap from the body.

While the preferred form of my improved bath mitt has been illustrated and described in detail, it will be appreciated that this full and complete disclosure has been given merely to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention, the scope of which is indicated by the appended claims.

What I claim as my invention is:

1. A bath mitt comprising two similarly shaped outer pieces of fabric united substantially around their edges to form a mitt having an opening thereinto, and a line of stitching uniting said outer pieces from one side of said opening to the other, said line of stitching outlining a main hand receiving pocket and two side recesses of elongated shape, each of which recesses is capable of receiving a thumb or little finger to permit reversal of said mitt, and a soap pocket located within said mitt and between said outer pieces of fabric, said pocket comprising an inner piece of fabric sewed to the interior of one of said outer pieces, and being open along an edge corresponding to the opening into the mitt, said inner piece of fabric having an edge alongside the opening of the mitt, said edge being turned over the outside of the outer piece to which it is sewed, and said edge being secured at its ends to the mitt to form a normally closed cover affording access to the interior of said pocket.

2. A bath mitt comprising two similarly shaped outer pieces of fabric united substantially around their edges to form a mitt having an opening thereinto, and a line of stitching uniting said pieces from one side of said opening to the other, said line of stitching outlining a main hand receiving pocket and two side recesses of elongated shape, each of which recesses is capable of receiving a thumb or little finger to permit reversal of said mitt, and a soap pocket located' within said mitt and between said outer pieces of fabric, said pocket comprising an inner piece of fabric sewed to the interior of one of said outer pieces, and being open along an edge corresponding to the opening into the mitt, said inner piece of fabric having an edge alongside the opening into the mitt, said edge being turned over the outside of said outer piece to which it is sewed, and said edge being secured at its ends to the mitt to form ya normally closed cover affording access to the interior of said pocket, the outer piece of fabric to which said inner piece of fabric is secured having a fold of material transversely thereof, the ends of said fold being sewed, and the intermediate portion of said fold being unsewed to afford fullness to the pocket formed thereby.

3. A bath mitt comprising front and back fabric pieces, a soap pocket in said mitt comprising a third piece of fabric attached along three sides to the inner side of said front piece leaving one edge free, said pocket being open along one side to form an opening into said mitt, and means for closing said pocket comprising a strip of fabric secured along the free edge of said third piece of fabric, said strip extending outside said mitt and being turned over the outer surface of said front piece and secured at its ends to said mitt at the sides of said opening, said front piece having a longitudinal fold of material overlying said pocket sewed together at its ends but unsewed in its central portion to afford fullness to said pocket.

4. A bath mitt comprising two similarly shaped outer fabric members united substantially around their edges to form a mitt having an opening thereinto, aline of stitching uniting said portions from one side of said opening to the other, said line yof stitching outlining a main hand receiving .portion and two side recesses of elongated shape, each of which recesses is capable of receiving a thumb or little finger to permit reversal of said mitt, a fabric partition intermediate said outer members dividing the interior of said mitt into a hand receiving pocket and a soap receiving pocket, said partition having a reversely turned iiap overlying at least the major portion of said soap pocket and located adjacent the opening into sai-d soap pocket, a line of stitching extending transversely across each end of said flap to retain said flap in position t0 Oppose movement of a bar of soap out of said pocket.

5. A bath mitt comprising two outer pieces of fabric each of which has a central corner intermediate two lateral corners, and a straight side opposite said central corner, a first sewed seam interconnecting said pieces along their edges in 'matched relation and extending from one end of the straight sides of said pieces around the three corners thereof to the 'other end of said straight sides leaving a hand receiving opening at the said straight sides, an inner piece of fabric intermediate said outer pieces of fabric, said inner piece of fabric being coextensive with the central portions of said outer pieces of fabric and extending to the said straight sides of said outer pieces of fabric at the hand opening, a second sewed seam connecting said outer pieces of fabric and located inwardly from the side edges of said mitt and extending from adjacent one end of said straight sides to the other end thereof around the mitt in a looped path defining a main hand receiving pocket and a pair of lateral recesses, each of said recesses being shaped to receive a thumb or little linger to provide for reversal of the mitt in use, said inner piece of fabric being sewed to at least one of said outer pieces of fabric along lines extending from adjacent the ends of the said straight sides of said outer pieces of fabric and enclosing a substantial area of the third piece of fabric inwardly of the mitt from the hand opening therein to form a partition within the central portion of the mitt and dening with one of said outer pieces of fabric a soap receiving pocket open along the straight sides of said outer pieces Iof fabric.

VERA PIERCE.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the le of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS 

